One of the simplest methods of recording and communicating information is the traditional method of writing the information down on a piece of paper with a writing instrument such as a pen. Writing information by hand on a piece of paper is inexpensive and can be done quickly and easily with little preparation. The traditional method is also flexible in that a writer can generally write in any format anywhere on the page. One of the limitations with handwritten work is that it is not easily manipulated or transferred to other contexts. In other words, changing or transferring a piece of handwritten text typically requires rewriting the text on another medium.
With the widespread use of personal computers, textual information often is recorded using word processing software running on a personal computer. The advantage of such electronic methods for recording information is that the information can be easily stored and transferred to other remote computing devices and electronic media. Such electronically recorded text can also be easily corrected, modified, and manipulated in a variety of different ways.
Typical computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems such as Microsoft WINDOWS, are optimized for accepting user input from one or more discrete input devices. Common input devices include a keyboard for entering text and a pointing device, such as a mouse with one or more buttons, for controlling the user interface. The keyboard and mouse interface facilitates creation and modification of electronic documents including text, spreadsheets, database fields, drawings, and photos.
One of the limitations with conventional GUI systems is that a user must generally type the text they are entering into the personal computer using the keyboard. Entering text using a keyboard is generally slower and more cumbersome than handwriting. Although recent advances have been made in reducing the size of personal computers, they are still not as portable and easily accessible as traditional paper and pen. Furthermore, traditional pen and paper provide the user with considerable flexibility for editing a document, recording notes in the margin, and drawing figures and shapes. In some instances, a user may prefer to use a pen to mark-up a document rather than review the document on-screen because of the ability to freely make notes outside of the confines of the keyboard and mouse interface.
To address the shortcomings of traditional keyboard and mouse interfaces, there have been various attempts to create an electronic tablet that can record handwriting. Such electronic tablets typically comprise a screen and a handheld device that is similar to a pen (also referred to as a stylus). A user can manipulate the pen to write on the electronic tablet in a manner similar to the use of traditional pen and paper. The electronic tablet can “read” the strokes of the user's handwriting with the handheld device and render the handwriting in electronic form on the tablet's screen and/or the computer's display as “electronic ink”. This electronic tablet approach can be employed in a variety of ways including, on a personal computer and on a handheld computing device.
Recently, other computer systems have been developed that provide for more sophisticated creation and manipulation of electronic ink. For example, some conventional software applications permit one to add electronic ink to a document. The software applications store the ink and provide it to a user when requested. Other applications (for example, drawing applications associated with the Palm and PocketPC operating systems) permit the capture and storage of drawings. These drawings include other properties associated with the ink strokes used to make up the drawings. For instance, line width and color may be stored with the ink. One goal of these systems is to replicate the look and feel of physical ink being applied to a piece of paper.
Replicating the look and feel of physical ink requires computer systems that work with electronic ink to handle this electronic ink differently than traditional electronic text and images that can be displayed on a display device. Unlike word processors that handle only one or two types of page objects such as text and images, computer systems that work with electronic ink usually need to handle multiple types of page objects that can include bit map images, drawing objects, and outline objects. Each outline object can include one or more nodes where each node can include at least one of text, a picture, and an ink object.
While conventional computer systems have the capability to handle electronic ink, conventional computer systems have very limited electronic ink conversion systems that recognize the electronic ink and covert it into text. The limitations of the conventional electronic ink conversion systems usually is apparent in the text editors. Correcting text that was converted from electronic ink can be very difficult and time consuming with the conventional art. Specifically, if multiple pages of electronic ink are converted at the same time, the converted text editor works in a modal fashion. This means, that upon starting the text editor of the conventional art, the editing process cannot be stopped until all pages have been corrected. Also, temporary exiting from the editing process is not permitted. This means that if only a few pages out of a plurality of pages were desired to be corrected, fewer pages less than the plurality of pages cannot be processed.
Another problem with conventional computer systems is that they seldom provide a way to assist in the correction of words converted from electronic ink. In other words, the conventional art will typically rely on the user to discover any discrepancies or conversion errors between the electronic ink and the converted text. Also the conventional art to does not provide a convenient and user friendly way to split words that have been inadvertently combined by the ink recognition system.
Another shortfall of conventional computer systems is that text editors do not provide adequate assistance to the user. In other words, conventional computer systems the convert electronic ink to text usually do not offer a ranked order of recommendations for misspelled words or new words that may not be part of a computer system's dictionary.
Accordingly there is a need in the art for a method and system for editing text converted from electronic ink that permits suspension of action or exiting from the system as needed prior to completion of the editing process. There is also a need in the art that permits completion of an editing process even if only a few pages of a plurality of pages have been edited. Another need exists in the art for a method and system that permits storage of text pages as the editing for each text page is completed. A further need exists in the art for a method and system that can provide logical and ranked recommendations for words that are difficult to convert to text from electronic ink. Another need exists in the art for a method and system that permits selection of a break point in a group of words that have been inadvertently combined by an ink conversion system.